Conventionally, LP gas is classified into gas imported from producers of industrial gas, and gas generated domestically during the manufacture of petrochemical products. Import stations of storing the LP gas transported by tankers from the industrial gas producers and oil refinery stations are called the primary stations. The LP gas in the primary station is loaded into coastal vessels and tank trucks, and shipped to the secondary stations, which are transit stations located along or away from the coasts. Further, the LP gas carried to the secondary stations is transported to LP gas filling stations (delivery bases) in various places, and is filled in gas cylinders in the delivery bases. The gas cylinders filled with the LP gas in the individual delivery bases are delivered by deliverymen to customers' homes, such as general houses, apartment buildings and offices. This is a supply method with a gas cylinder. Another supply method is a supply system with a gas bulk. This is a method for supplying gas from tank trucks directly to a gas bulk in customer's home. In the description of the present invention, there is a case wherein a gas cylinders and a gas bulk are collectively referred to as “gas cylinders”.
For LP gas supplied by these methods, there is a possibility leading up to pollution, such as a gas leakage or a gas explosion. Therefore, there is the law in Japan for ensuring safety, anti-pollution and optimization of transaction of LP gas as main purposes. According to the law, gas suppliers are obligated to conduct periodical inspections of LP gas supply facility and consumption facility. It should be noted that the supply facility represents a section extended from a gas cylinder to the outlet of a gas meter. The gas facility is obligated to conduct periodical inspections under administrative control and responsibly in the gas suppliers. The consumption facility represents a section extended from the outlet of a gas meter to each gas appliance (e.g., a gas stove or a water heater). This facility is under administrative control and responsibly in a customer, and as well as the supply facility, a periodical inspection by the gas supplier is required.
There are two types of law for obligating periodical inspections: the “Act on the Securing of Safety and the Optimization of Transaction of Liquefied Petroleum Gas” (hereinafter referred to as the “Liquefied Petroleum. Gas Act”) and the “Gas Business Act”, both of which are separated based on supply forms. The Liquefied Petroleum Gas Act stipulates, as LP gas supply forms, a direct supply form for delivering gas cylinders to customers (hereinafter referred to as “general supply”) and a form whereby a simplified gas generator, also called a gas facility, is installed and vaporizes LP gas, and the thus generated gas is supplied through pipelines to a plurality of customers. It should be noted, however, that the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Act is applied for a service area wherein the number of supply destinations, i.e., the number of customers, is smaller than seventy. In a case wherein the number of customers is seventy or greater, the Gas Business Act is applied. As described above, although the installed facility is the same, the different Act is applied in accordance with the number of supply destinations. To classify the individual supply forms, the supply form employed for the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Act is called “concentric gas (supply)” and that employed for the Gas Business Act is called “community gas (supply)”. Further, there is a case wherein both for the concentric gas and the community gas, a gas facility as a supply facility is called a “parent”, while a consumption facility in a customer is called a “child”. It should be noted that the destinations of supply by the gas facility are not a plurality of “consumption facilities”, but a plurality of “customers” (it is possible that a customer owns a plurality of consumption facilities, and eventually, gas supply may be performed for a plurality of consumption facilities).
According to the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Act, a periodical inspection is obligated once every four years for the supply facility and the consumption facility for gas cylinders. It should be noted that the periodical inspection includes a piping inspection to inspect gas pipes. In the piping inspection, in a case of a white gas pipe that tends to be corrosive (an old-fashioned plated gas pipe), in principle, the annual inspection is obligated. For a gas bulk, there is also a case wherein the inspection should be conducted in a shorter period cycle, such as every six months or every year. Further, in a case wherein re-inspection is required as the result of the periodical inspection for the consumption facility, the re-inspection must be obligated within one month to sixth months following the inspection date. The requirement for re-inspection is limited to the case of the consumption facility, because the consumption facility is consistently owned by the customer, and the gas supplier can merely request that the customer take a corrective measure. Therefore, when a predetermined period has elapsed from the request, the re-inspection is conducted for the corrective measure. If the corrective measure is not yet taken at the time of re-inspection, and it is determined that it is at high risk to continuously supply gas, it stops supplying gas (so-called a closing cock measure). In contrast, the supply facility belongs to the gas supplier, and the immediate inspection can be conducted if the re-inspection is required, so that any specific period of time for the re-inspection is not stipulated by the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Act.
According to the Gas Business Act, the periodical inspection for every forty months for the consumption facility is obligated. A period for conducting the periodical check of a gas facility, which is supply facility, varies depending on the facility level. More specifically, a daily check is obligated for the facility that employs a system for forcibly vaporizing LP gas by using electricity or a gas, a monthly check is obligated for the facility with an automatic monitoring device being attached, and a weekly check is obligated for the other type of facility. Furthermore, likely to the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Act, the re-inspection for the consumption facility is obligated within one month to sixth months following the inspection date. Moreover, for the supply facility, the re-inspection for a pipeline leakage is obligated once every forty months. The pipeline represents a gas pipe that is employed for community gas supply and that is embedded underground and extended in parallel to a road (meanwhile, gas pipes extended from the pipeline to the individual customers are called “supply lines”).
In addition to the above described inspections, periodical replacement of parts, such as a gas alarm device, a gas meter, a gas pressure regulator and a gas hose, is also performed to provide the maintenance and the replacement operation for these parts. Especially, parts should be replaced before their expiry dates, since there are many types of parts and different expiry dates are provided for the individual types.
In the description of this invention, “inspection”, “check” and “survey” are employed in accordance with cases. The “inspection” represents an operation for examining all the facility, including the consumption facility in the customer's home, the “check” represents an operation for examining only of the supply facility, and the “survey” represents an extension of “check” for more closely surveying the supply facility. Further, in some cases, the “inspection”, the “check” and the “survey” are collectively referred to as the “inspection”. The inspection operation and the parts replacement operation are collectively called a safety operation.
As described above, many inspections are conducted for the LP gas supply facility and consumption facility and the periodical replacement for many types of parts is performed. Safety inspectors perform these safety operations, and submit inspection slips describing the results.
However, at present, paper-based inspection slips are employed. The inspection slips are divided into two types, one type each for the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Act and for the Gas Business Act, and furthermore, in case of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Act, the inspection slip differs for gas cylinders and for gas bulks, so that the total of three types of inspection slips are provided. The safety inspector carries these three types of inspection slips, and selects an appropriate slip in accordance with the facility. Further, inspection items that are not actually necessary in accordance with the type of a safety operation are also included in the inspection slip. On this point, a determination for unnecessary inspection items is also performed by the safety inspector. Further, a determination for compulsory inspection items is also left to the safety inspector. Under these circumstances, there are problems that omissions or errors in entries of the inspection are found, and the safety inspector visits the actual site again to perform re-inspection.
The safety inspector returns to his or her office with the inspection slips that were manually filled in at the operational sites, and employs a PC terminal to enter data to a safety management system. However, the data entry is not always performed by the safety inspector, and correct data may not be entered. Various problems occur due to erroneous entry of data, the increase in workload for re-entering data due to the erroneous entry of data, and the occurrence of a time lag until the inspection results are reflected in the safety management system.
To resolve these problems, there has been a demand on a method and a system, wherein a two-dimensional code, such as a QR code (registered trademark), is attached to the LP gas supply facility and consumption facility, and safety inspectors read the code by using mobile terminals carried by the safety inspectors, and download, into the mobile terminals, the inspection slips (inspection items) corresponding to the individual safety operations in real-time at operating sites, and a server collects all the inspection results through data communication.